Global IT spending is expected to reach $1.6 trillion in 2011, an increase of 5.7% over 2010 with hardware spending registering 7.8% growth and software spending, related project-based services and outsourcing spending registering 5.3%, 3.5% and 4% year-over-year growth, respectively.
The research firm said that worldwide IT spending will also benefit from the accelerated recovery in emerging markets, which will generate more than half of all net new IT spending worldwide in 2011.
Spending on public IT cloud services will grow at more than five times the rate of the IT industry in 2011, up 30% from 2010, as organisations move a wider range of business applications into the cloud.
SMBs cloud use will surge in 2011, with adoption of some cloud resources topping 33% among US midsize firms by year’s end while the nascent private cloud model will continue to evolve as infrastructure, software, and service providers collaborate on a range of new offerings and solutions.
The report said that the vendor battle for two cloud will be joined to determine on whose cloud platform will solutions be deployed, and who will provide coherent IT management across multiple public clouds, customers’ private clouds, and their legacy IT environments.
In addition, mobile computing on a variety of devices and through a range of new apps will continue to explode in 2011, forming another critical plank in the new industry platform.
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IDC expects shipments of app-capable, non-PC mobile devices (smartphones, media tablets) to outnumber PC shipments within the next 18 months while vendors with a PC heritage will scramble to secure their position in this rapidly expanding market.
The research firm expects nearly 25 billion mobile apps to be downloaded in 2011, up from just over 10 billion in 2010 and social business software is expected to grow at a CAGR of 38% through 2014.
Further, the use of social platforms by SMBs will accelerate, with more than 40% of SMBs using social networks for promotional purposes by the year’s end.
In retail, mobility and social networking are changing consumers’ shopping experience, as they bring their smartphones into the store for on-site price comparisons and product recommendations, while in financial services, mobility and the cloud are bringing mobile banking and payments closer to reality.
In the healthcare industry, IDC expects 14% of adult Americans to use a mobile health application in 2011.
